TFA Corps Members-- Applying this year, or applied for 2014?

[DrDrummer]

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Are there any other current Teach for America who are applying during their first or second year? I'm a second-year CM who's applying via the TMDSAS and AMCAS this spring-- thinking hard about the ways in which my TFA experience should shape my essays and interviews and all that, and how it's impacted my decision to become a physician.

Did anyone apply this cycle who would be willing to talk about how they discussed their experience in essays or interviews, and what kind of response they got? I've heard some people tell me they get asked, "Why didn't you volunteer/shadow/etc. more?" which seems to suggest a lack of understanding about how time-intensive teaching is, especially in your first year. Anyone get any different, or particularly interesting responses?

Anyway, good luck to anyone else who's going through this process currently. I'm sure we'll see all the threads start for the class of 2015 start soon enough.

 

[peripherin]

Heeey!

Good luck applying this year!! I'm a 2nd year TFA CM who spent the past year applying. If you'll still be teaching next year, save up those sick days!

 

[Naijaba]

Hi DrDrummer,

As peripherin said, the first thing you'll want to consider is the time requirement of interviews. Teachers at my school receive 10 sick/personal days per year (seems like a lot, right? It isn't.). I was fortunate enough to schedule 3 back-to-back interviews on the East Coast, but it still took an entire week's worth of teaching (5 days). My MSTP interview at Northwestern took 2 days. I had already been sick for a couple of days before this, so I ended up using 9 off days when I received another two-day MSTP interview at Univ. of Colorado. I decided not to attend, both because I really didn't want to go to Colorado, and because I didn't want to be in violation. I ended up using the last personal day for my Stanford interview.

If I had received any other interviews I would have had to violate the district's policies. The consequence of that is usually a negative end-of-year evaluation meaning you cannot continue to teach in the school district. Since I'm leaving teaching that wouldn't be too much of a problem, except for the fact that I may want to teach again a long time in the future.

Now onto your question regarding discussing your TFA experience. My motivation for going to medical school was never a direct consequence of TFA. Teaching was an aside that I wanted to tryout for a while to see if I would like it. I mentioned TFA in my personal statement as an outlet to explore the side of myself that enjoys mentoring others. I went into more detail in my Work/Activities section about the actual day-to-day experiences.

For me, my TFA experience was rather difficult and not hugely successfully, and I didn't lie about this fact on my application. Rather, I wrote about how I had to overcome many struggles and how I deeply understand the discrepancies in our education system. Since I don't come from a minority or impoverished background, this was the first time I ever took the frontlines against cultural/economic inequalities. That's what I wrote about in my Work/Activites section.

In interviews the main question I was asked was, "Why did you do Teach for America when you are clearly set on pursuing research medicine? Wouldn't it have been better to pursue research for two years?" My answer to this question was the same as my personal statement: I wanted to devote myself to a worthwhile cause that would enable me to sample a teaching profession.

There's more that I could say about this topic, but I've already written too much. PM me if you want more information!

 

[DrDrummer]

As peripherin said, the first thing you'll want to consider is the time requirement of interviews. Teachers at my school receive 10 sick/personal days per year (seems like a lot, right? It isn't.). I was fortunate enough to schedule 3 back-to-back interviews on the East Coast, but it still took an entire week's worth of teaching (5 days). My MSTP interview at Northwestern took 2 days. I had already been sick for a couple of days before this, so I ended up using 9 off days when I received another two-day MSTP interview at Univ. of Colorado. I decided not to attend, both because I really didn't want to go to Colorado, and because I didn't want to be in violation. I ended up using the last personal day for my Stanford interview.

Sounds like some pretty sweet options. Luckily I miss very, very few days (I've got a reputation for being here every day and I try to stick to it), so I've got enough banked I'm sure. I just hope I get an interview or two in the first place.

Thanks for your feedback and insight. What I'm struggling with is balancing wanting to talk about my TFA experience and tell a compelling and interesting story with addressing the parts of the questions that ask about "Why medicine?" or "What are your goals in the profession?" (TMDSAS). I'm hoping that my motivation will be evident from the story I tell, and that since I'm applying as a non-trad, I've presumably thought enough about it that I don't need to explicitly break down how I weighed this career against other options, and that the TFA experience underlies the rationale behind my goal of practicing primary care in a community like the one I work in now. We'll see what the ADCOMS think. 🙂

 

[LizzyM]

Are there any other current Teach for America who are applying during their first or second year? I'm a second-year CM who's applying via the TMDSAS and AMCAS this spring-- thinking hard about the ways in which my TFA experience should shape my essays and interviews and all that, and how it's impacted my decision to become a physician.

Did anyone apply this cycle who would be willing to talk about how they discussed their experience in essays or interviews, and what kind of response they got? I've heard some people tell me they get asked, "Why didn't you volunteer/shadow/etc. more?" which seems to suggest a lack of understanding about how time-intensive teaching is, especially in your first year. Anyone get any different, or particularly interesting responses?

Anyway, good luck to anyone else who's going through this process currently. I'm sure we'll see all the threads start for the class of 2015 start soon enough.

They may lack an understanding of how time intensive teaching is or they may be trying to gain an understanding of how you have tested your interest in medicine and how you know that you are going to be more happy in medicine than you are in academia. That is the question you need to be prepared to answer and making excuses is not the best response.

 

[Longshanks]

They may lack an understanding of how time intensive teaching is or they may be trying to gain an understanding of how you have tested your interest in medicine and how you know that you are going to be more happy in medicine than you are in academia. That is the question you need to be prepared to answer and making excuses is not the best response.

Exactly. The question is more geared to your undergradute career rather than probing for why you didn't shadow while working as a teacher.

 

[LizzyM]

Exactly. The question is more geared to your undergradute career rather than probing for why you didn't shadow while working as a teacher.

The other question is why, if you enjoy medicine, have you dropped it entirely to devote all your time to teaching. Why did you change gears and why did you change back?